Grey's Anatomy's Most Heartbreaking Moments of 2012

Grey's Anatomyhas been making us cry for nine years now, but for some reason, we can’t get enough. Whether it’s something as tragic as a plane crash or something as simple as failure, Grey’s is an expert at pulling at our heartstrings, sometimes harder than others. In honor of the many tears we shed in 2012, we’ve rounded up the year’s seven most heartbreaking scenes.Get the tissues ready. Reliving these moments is almost as hard as experiencing them for the first time.

7. Teddy grieves for Henry: Henry’s death ended 2011, but if you’re like us, watching Teddy (Kim Raver) dealing with the sudden death of her husband was even harder than watching him die. Tragic romances always get us, especially if the widow has to grieve without her best friend, whom she’s mad at, and with the suspicion that if she'd done the surgery, she could’ve saved him. Sometimes, we don’t envy these docs.

6. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) admits to cheating: After Cristina (Sandra Oh) became suspicious of Owen and another woman in the hospital, she confronted him. Cristina has never been one to beat around the bush. But the good news is that Owen did not sleep with that woman — but he did sleep with someone else. We were furious with Owen, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t cry.

5. Richard (James Pickens Jr.) meets Adele’s (Loretta Devine) boyfriend: Talk about a scene that crushed our spirit. After years of affairs and unhappiness and working too much, Richard and Adele were finally in a good place when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. But it wasn’t until Adele forgot who Richard was and introduced him to the man she was in love with that we couldn’t keep the sobs in any longer. The memory of this will never stop breaking our hearts.

4. April (Sarah Drew) fails her boards: This didn’t make us shed actual tears for April, but our hearts ached for someone who worked so long for something, just to watch all of her peers achieve it. Perhaps it reminded us of George (T.R. Knight), whose memory always brings tears to our eyes.

3. Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh) dies: Do we even need to explain the tragedy of this one? Finally having the love of your life confess his feelings for you as you lay dying? Ugh.

2. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) dies: Another self-explanatory one. Finally confessing your feelings to the love of your life as she lays dying? And then dying yourself? Ugh.

1. Cristina’s psychotic break: In 2012, the most shocking and heartbreaking revelation belongs to Cristina, when she told Owen about the animals coming after Lexie’s body. It gives us chills and not in a good way.We told you to grab the tissues. We would tell you to put them away now, but with Adele’s admission to the hospital in the last episode, we’re not so sure. Catch the next new episode of Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 9 p.m. ET/PT onABC.Samantha Highfill is a contributing writer to Wetpaint Entertainment. Follow her on Twitter at@samhighfill.